Following news of his death, the actress commemorated him with an image on her Twitter account that featured Rickman's face overlaid with his quotation from March 2015 that expressed his strongly-held feminist beliefs.

Rickman's statement read: "There is nothing wrong with a man being a feminist, I think it is to our mutual advantage."

Twitter trolls quickly latched on to her tribute and began attacking the actress, who played Hermione Granger opposite Rickman's Severus Snape.

One wrote: "Emma, you are a repugnant human being using his death to push your agenda."

Another tweeted: "Wow, you're using the death of your friend to push your agenda. That's actually horrible."

Another user wrote: "He's not even cold and you're using him to fuel the feminist agenda bandwagon? Not impressed."

Watson has been a long-time target for the anti-feminist community, with attacks ramping up after she became a Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women and advocate for the HeForShe campaign that promotes gender equality.

However, many fans came out in support of the 25-year-old following the backlash.

"He was a feminist, and those were his words, she is just paying tribute, nothing wrong with it," one wrote.

"Love the @EmWatson tribute to Alan Rickman. She respectfully paid homage to his humanitarian character and feminist ideals they shared," another commented.

One comforted her, writing: "You shared with the world something wonderful that you and Alan Rickman shared, don't let others turn his words to hate."

Watson posted her own tribute to the actor on her Facebook page, which read: "I'm very sad to hear about Alan today. I feel so lucky to have worked and spent time with such a special man and actor. I'll really miss our conversations. RIP Alan. We love you."

She stood up to her detractors by continuing to post quotations from the celebrated actor, although no more were about feminism.

"I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure," one said.

"Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over," read another.